Today’s post is going to be brief for reasons I’ll explain in a moment. But we do have some pretty significant announcement news we need to tell you all about.

First, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has just officially announced the long-expected 4K Ultra HD release of Richard Donner’s original Superman: The Movie on 11/6. The 4K release will include the theatrical version of the film only on 4K and on the newly-remastered Blu-ray included in the package as well. The 4K version will feature both Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos object-based audio. Our information is that, in addition to Atmos, the 4K release will include 5.1 audio mixed from the original 1978 6-track 70mm as well.

Extras on both discs will include the audio commentary with Pierre Spengler and Ilya Salkind. The Blu-ray will add the 1978 The Making of Superman: The Movie TV special, the 58-minute Superman and the Mole-Men (1951) feature starring George Reeves, additional cartoon shorts, trailers, and TV spots. You can see the cover artwork there at left and also below. SRP for the set is $41.99, though it’ll be on sale for much less on Amazon and elsewhere. [Read on here...]

“It takes a filmmaker as deeply imaginative, but also technically savvy as Steven Spielberg to orchestrate and bring [all of the elements] together into a cohesive whole that works with his intricate vision as a storyteller, in both moments and big picture. There are other filmmakers who would have made wonderful adaptations of the Crichton book, no doubt, but the project landed in the right, highly skilled hands, heart and imagination.” — Steven Awalt, author of Steven Spielberg and Duel: The Making of a Film Career

The Digital Bits and History, Legacy & Showmanship are pleased to present this retrospective commemorating the silver anniversary of the release of Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg’s popular and franchise-inspiring adaptation of Michael Crichton’s best-selling novel starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough and which showcased groundbreaking and award-winning visual effects and audio. [Read on here...]

I’ve also checked in with my thoughts on The Greatest Showman in 4K Ultra HD, from director Michael Gracey and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The musical features an absolutely reference quality A/V presentation, including some of the best looking 4K video yet seen on the format. Do give it a look.

“Close Encounters helps demonstrate perhaps better than any other why Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest American filmmakers.” — Spielberg biographer Joseph McBride

The Digital Bits and History, Legacy & Showmanship are pleased to present this retrospective commemorating the 40th anniversary of the release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Steven Spielberg’s legendary science-fiction film starring Richard Dreyfuss as Roy Neary, an electrical lineman who obsesses over the sighting, physical evidence and, ultimately, contact with a UFO.

The film, which also starred Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon and Francois Truffaut, was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning for Vilmos Zsigmond’s cinematography (and also receiving a special achievement award for sound effects editing). [Read on here...]

Good morning, Bits readers. We trust that all those of you here in the States had a fine long holiday weekend with your family and friends. We’ve been busy here at the site over that time in a couple of ways...

Now then, we’ll get back to 4K in a moment, but first we wanted to let you know that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has officially set Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon: 80th Anniversary Edition for release on Blu-ray on 10/3, mastered from a new 4K restoration and in Capra Collection Digibook packaging. Extras will include restoration audio commentary, an alternate ending, a photo documentary, the Restoration: Before and After Comparison featurette, and the film’s theatrical trailer. The book will include an essay by film historian Jeremy Arnold. Click past the jump to see the packaging... [Read on here…]

This thesis prevailed on me as I went to see the 3-D Imax version of a new picture called The Great Wall. This picture opened to dismal reviews, but the previews had made it look righteous and the effects, I knew, would be fun, and they were and the whole experience wasn’t bad.

And on the way out, I was thinking of all these feckless movie reviewers who get published and why they would trash this movie. I thought to myself: “Why were they so hard on this movie? It’s just a fun “B” picture?”

And then I figured it out. They all are. 90% of what we see in the theaters are “B” pictures with “A” budgets.

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About Bill Hunt

Bill Hunt is the Editor in Chief of The Digital Bits, and the co-author (with Todd Doogan) of the Amazon Top 50 selling book The Digital Bits: Insiders Guide to DVD. Hunt founded The Bits in 1997, in the early days of the DVD format,…

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